


We're inches apart (and even closer at heart)

by Elisexyz



Series: Closer at heart [2]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Amnesiac Henry Mills (Once Upon a Time), Baelfire | Neal Cassidy Lives, Bittersweet, Character Death Fix, Episode: s03e15 Quiet Minds, F/M, Father-Son Relationship, Fix-It
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-20
Updated: 2019-04-20
Packaged: 2020-01-14 14:00:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,220
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18477679
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elisexyz/pseuds/Elisexyz
Summary: Henry has never had a dad before.





	We're inches apart (and even closer at heart)

**Author's Note:**

> Oh my god, look at me actually writing a sequel! Miracles do happen!  
>  ...I just needed some Daddyfire in my life. so. Enjoy!  
>  (Title from [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHx_Utu2fiw).)

“The reason I brought us here is because— someone was in trouble,” Emma begins explaining, Henry watching her attentively. “And the person who needed help was not a client. It was your father.”

Henry frowns. “This is about— my dad?”

“Some— bad people wanted to hurt him,” Emma nods, because she’s going to need to give an explanation for why Neal is in an hospital anyway. Or why she’ll be hovering around him like a mother hen.

“Is— he okay, did you find him?” Henry quickly asks, and Emma smiles a little at the concern, because she definitely hasn’t painted a very flattering picture of Neal, and yet her son’s first reaction is one of concern. He’s a good kid, and not for the first time Emma just wishes to grab him and bring him back to New York, to his normal, safe life.

(She might still do that. She’s just going to get father and son to meet – again – first, and possibly let Neal follow, if he wants.)

(Who is she kidding, he’ll definitely want to.)

“I found him,” she assures, smiling a little. Henry smiles too. “He’s alright, all things considered. I—” She falters, searching for the right words. “I know I’ve told you— things, about your dad.” Henry’s face darkens, and she feels a twinge of guilt. “I know you probably don’t like him very much, after all that—”

“He left you,” he reminds her, shifting a little on his seat and looking insanely disappointed for a moment, like he just now remembered.

“He did,” Emma says, carefully. “But I guess I— kinda lacked a lot of context, on that.” Yeah, that’s one way of putting it. “It’s complicated and I can’t really explain now, but he had a much better reason that I thought, I promise.”

Henry raises his eyes on her, hesitating before he asks: “So— you’re not mad at him anymore?”

She opens her mouth to answer, only to close it. Yet, she’s quick to shake her head. “I don’t think ‘mad’ is the right word,” she explains, offering what she hopes is a comforting smile as she rubs his back.

Honestly, she isn’t sure what the right word actually is. The hurt hasn’t gone away, she doesn’t even know what having completely forgiven him is supposed to feel like, but she knows that the thought of having him around Henry and maybe eventually take him with them to New York is— okay. It’s good. Not nearly as terrifying as she’d have guessed before.

“Look, the point here is,” she continues, straightening her back. “He’s a good man. And I think he’d make a great father. I’d just like you to give him a chance, without holding back because of what happened between the two of us.” She takes a breath, and Henry just stares at her, with a bit of suspicion in his eyes.

That look usually means that he’s trying to catch her in a lie, and this whole conversation is a minefield considering the amount of things that she has to explain away, but she isn’t lying about _this_ , at least.

“He really wants to see you,” she adds, gently. “Would you be okay with that?”

Henry considers her for a few moments too long, but eventually he nods. “Yeah, okay,” he says. “I’d like that.”

 

 

-

 

 

Henry is so nervous it is reminding him of his first day at his new school in New York. It’s a good thing that he’s currently walking into an hospital, because at least they’ll probably have something for him to throw up in.

He’s a little excited, and he isn’t sure what that says about him, being excited about meeting the man that left his mom and made her suffer so much.

(But he’s never had a _dad_ before. He’s going to meet his dad.)

She says she’s okay with it, and Henry believes her, he does, but what if this Neal hurts her again? His mom spends her day catching bad men – _He’s a good man_ , she told him; _That’s not what you said before_ , a little voice in his head counters – like him, and they belong in jail.

Henry isn’t stupid nor a kid anymore. He knows that his mom is smart, very smart, but he also watches TV, and what if— what if she really loves this guy, and what if she _wants_ to think he’s good, but he’s not? Henry should look out for her, make sure that he isn’t going to leave her – again.

Instead, there he is. Excited.

“He’s over there,” his mom points, guiding hands on his shoulders and a nervous smile that doesn’t make him feel much better about this meeting.

As they get closer, Henry hears a female voice speak in an accent that he’s positive he’s heard in some show but can’t quite place: “I _really_ think you should stay here a while longer.”

“Whale says there’s nothing wrong with me!” a man replies, and Henry’s stomach takes a leap, because he can only guess that that is his dad.

“That could _change_ though,” the woman replies.

Henry can now see that she’s standing by the bedside, and Hook is there too. The man on the bed – Neal, his _dad_ – has messy hair and a pretty annoyed look on his face. Henry automatically takes half a step backwards, colliding with his mom.

“I’m bored out of my _mind_ ,” Neal groans, throwing his head back.

Henry remembers imagining his dad, both when he was little and he didn’t yet know the story and after. Since when he found out how he left his mom, just like that, the picture in his head became a little sharper, with harder eyes and a lot of beard, big and intimidating like those prison guys that he saw in movies.

Neal doesn’t look like that, but maybe he looks a little like a dad. Not necessarily _his_ dad, just— a dad. In general.

“You’ll have to deal with it, because you’re staying here,” Hook replies, pointedly, crossing his arms.

“Oh, come _on_ —”

“Baelfire!”

“Don’t Baelfire me, I feel fi—” Neal stops midsentence when he sets his eyes on them, his mouth hanging open. That makes Hook and the woman turn around too.

“Uh, hey,” his mom says, her fingers drumming on Henry’s shoulders. Henry swallows heavily, determinate not to lose the staring contest with Neal – he doesn’t look much like he’s going for a staring contest, though, more like he’s stuck. “I brought Henry, he wanted to say hi,” his mom continues, her tone friendly.

“Oh,” Neal breathes out, blinking rapidly as if startled, his eyes darting to her. “Oh, yeah, yeah. That’s— great.” It looks like Henry isn’t the only one who’s nervous, at least. He isn’t really sure he can feel his fingers anymore, honestly.

“Okay, so we’ll just—” His mom gives him a gentle push, offering Henry a smile of encouragement when their eyes meet. “We’ll just leave you two alone.”

Before Henry knows it, all three of them are gone, and it’s just him, standing a few feet away from his dad.

(His _dad_. He has one of those.)

He should probably walk a little closer.

He takes exactly two steps, then he stops, his arms hanging uselessly down his sides. He flexes his fingers.

“So,” he says, grimacing a little when his voice comes out too thin and childlike. “You’re my dad,” he adds, without much else to say, in a tone that’s a little more acceptable.

Neal stares at him for a moment, then he bows his head slightly, grinning like there’s some funny joke that Henry doesn’t get – that doesn’t make him any less nervous, honestly.

“Yeah,” Neal replies then. He clears his throat. “It’s— nice to meet you. I’m sorry it took so long.”

Right. He’s sorry. Because he left his mom.

Henry can only nod, shifting a little on his feet. He can’t help wondering what this stranger that’s his dad thinks of him, like _he_ is the one who is supposed to pass some kind of test, because even if his mom always said that his father never knew about him, so he didn’t reject _him_ , now that they are meeting that possibility is very much there.

(He feels a little guilty for caring so much about Neal’s opinion.)

He’s also angry. Angry because it’s been too long, and he should have been there from the start.

(He says he’s sorry, at least.)

Neal sighs at the awkward silence, giving him a sad smile. “You probably don’t have a very high opinion of me, do you?”

 _Not really, no_. “Mom says I should give you a chance,” he answers, with a shrug.

That’s the best he can do, because now he’s thinking about his mom and those days when she was so tired and stressed that it’s a wonder she didn’t break and how everyone else had two parents but his mom was stuck working for two, and yet she always made sure he had everything. He’s thinking of every Father’s day he spent guiltily wishing to have something, _anything_ , to hold onto, and he’s thinking of the look on his mom’s face when she finally told him what happened. Still so hurt, after years.

Neal laughs a little, shaking his head. “In other words, ‘Of course not, you massive jerk’.”

Henry goes a little stiff, and he knows he’s right and he has a reason to be angry, but his stomach twists at the thought that he has offended him and that he’ll now be thrown out.

He should probably apologize.

“It’s alright,” Neal quickly says, before Henry has even the chance to gather the words for that apology. “I get it, really. I did a shitty thing, and there’s no taking it back.” He offers an hesitant smile. “But I’d like a chance to try and make it up to you, to both of you. If you’ll let me.”

Henry feels a small smile tugging at his lips, hope making its way inside him as a little of the guilt for his excitement and curiosity goes away.

“Okay,” he says, rubbing his left arm with the opposite hand, his eyes dropping to the ground. He should start making some conversation, then. “Are you hurt badly?” he blurts out, because his mom said he wasn’t and he looks fine, but still.

Neal looks insanely relieved at his answer, so that’s something.

“Nah,” he shrugs, smiling affectionately. “I could probably be out, it’s just they are all a little worried.” He pauses, his smile widening. “Your mom saved me, you know?”

That gets an easy smile out of Henry. “Yeah, she does that. She’s great.”

“That she is.”

Neal offers him the chair, that’s at a pretty safe distance from the bed already without him having to make it awkward and push it back any further. Still, watching his dad up-close is a little different, a little more overwhelming.

(He has a _dad_ now. A dad who’s sorry and wants to make it up to him.)

“So, how do you like living in New York?” Neal asks, his tone perfectly friendly, twisting his torso a little so that he’s facing him better.

Henry can roll with that.

 

 

-

 

 

The first thing that Emma does is getting herself a cup of coffee.

It’s shitty hospital coffee and it takes forever to come out, but it’s better than nothing. And it reassures her that the awkward part of the father-son reunion will be over by the time she’ll get back anywhere near it.

She isn’t sure why the thought of the whole thing going badly _bothers_ her so much, maybe it’s just because she remembers how Henry was head over the hills about his father after merely ten minutes of knowing him, the first time around, and the only reason why it’d be different now is what _she_ said, if only in their fake memories.

(She doesn’t need that guilt, no thanks.)

Maybe it’s just that _she_ kinda wants Neal to be around now, and the idea of Henry going ‘I never want to see that guy again’ on her is— not fine.

(True Loves. She hasn’t been thinking about it much, there has been a lot to do today and it doesn’t feel like she has had a moment to _think_ , but still— True Loves.)

(Is it surprising, though? Not really.)

Maybe it’s also that she’s always been weak for Neal’s puppy eyes and she doesn’t want to _imagine_ what his reaction would be if Henry rejected him.

(And it’d be her fault. Or at least, Fake Emma’s fault.)

When she walks back towards Hook and Belle, they are shamelessly spying on the conversation, although they are out of earshot.

“How is it going?” Emma asks, trying to sound casual, as she hands Hook the candy bar that he asked for.

“I’d say really well,” Belle smiles, inviting her to take a look with a brief gesture.

Emma obeys, her heart racing and her mouth dry, and what she finds is Henry sitting next to Neal’s bed, gesturing widely while he tells him god knows what story, and Neal looking at him like he hung the moon.

She smiles, relieved.

“Good,” she sighs, mostly to herself.

Everything is going to be fine.

 

**Author's Note:**

> This story is part of the [LLF Comment Project](https://longlivefeedback.tumblr.com/llfcommentproject), which was created to improve communication between readers and authors. This author invites and appreciates feedback, including: 
> 
>   * Short comments
>   * Long comments
>   * Questions
>   * “<3” as extra kudos
>   * Reader-reader interaction
> 

> 
> If you don’t want a reply, for any reason, feel free to sign your comment with “whisper” and I will appreciate it but not respond!


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